He grew up expecting to preach
hell, fire and brimstone like his father. Noting he was "always running
at the mouth," his mother expected him to become a lawyer.

But when his father died
just as Alonzo Smith "Jake" Gaither was finishing college, he had to become
a provider, which meant taking a job as a high school football coach.

In 1945, three years after
barely surviving a bout with brain cancer, Gaither became head coach at
Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. The school's president couldn't
get anyone else to take the job.

He coached at the school
for 25 seasons, compiling a 203-36-4 record, the highest winning percentage
(.844) of anyone who has coached more than 13 seasons of college football.

Born in 1903 in Dayton,
Tenn., Gaither wanted his players "mobile, agile and hostile." By the 1960s,
he had established such an elaborate pipeline in Florida that he didn't
bother to recruit anywhere else.

Gaither's greatest innovation
was the Split-Line T formation, which appeared in 1963 and was soon imitated
by virtually every successful coach. His proudest moment came Nov. 29,
1969, when his Rattlers defeated the University of Tampa, 34-28, in the
South's first interracial college football game.

His passion and his motivational
skills set Gaither apart. He wasn't above hiding an onion in his handkerchief
to work up tears for a pre-game pep talk. No onion was necessary after
a loss.

By the time he retired in
1969, Gaither was as much an institution as Florida A&M itself. Forty-two
of his players had gone on to the NFL. Gaither never had any intention
of going anywhere.

Before he died at 90 in
1994 in Tallahassee, he told his biographer, George E. Curry:

"I run into so many people
who have no deep sense of morals -- people who got a price tag on them,
who'd sell their soul. I want to find the man who has no price tag on him.
I'm not for sale."